IRELAND, Norway and Spain said today that they will recognise a Palestinian state, a historic but largely symbolic move that further deepens Israel’s isolation more than seven months into its total destruction of Gaza.

Israel immediately denounced the decisions and recalled its ambassadors to the three countries.

Palestinians welcomed the announcements as an affirmation of their decades-long quest for statehood in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel seized in the 1967 war and still illegally controls.